67 facts about Bitcoin in just 10 years
10,000 Bitcoins were worth a couple of pizzas. With the current prize, an owner of 10,000 Bitcoins would have enough to buy Pizza Hut, the company. But, perhaps, it takes courage (or more than just courage) to hold 10k Bitcoins for 10 years.
Even 5 years ago, a single Bitcoin was valued at under $100 in January last year.
Just about how predictable and volatile Bitcoin is should be known from its 10-year story, not in one year.
If you want a full list of the most exciting facts about Bitcoins, head over to an infographic compiled by the team at Bitcoinplay.net.
But here are some of those facts:
1. About 1000 people own 40 percent of total BTC in circulation
Perharps centralization issues come to play here. But this also signify that not many have had trust on Bitcoin over the years even as it went from nearly $0 to the current value.
The 1000 people hold about 5,638,155 Bitcoins between them. This constitute about a third of all Bitcoins in circulation. Some of the Bitcoin millionaires include Roger Ver, Charlie Shrem and Dave Carlson.
At the same time, 90 percent of all Bitcoin addresses have less than 0.1 BTC.
2. 69 percent of banks involved in Infosys survey are experimenting with permissioned blockchains
There has been the talk of more banks and financial institutions starting to facilitate Bitcoin transactions and then the talk of more banks and financial institutions starting to use blockchain tech and other cryptocurrencies on their systems. Cryptocurrencies generated a lot of interest among public last year more than in any other year and this is likely to continue in 2018.
Wait! If the top 10 investment banks would use blockchain ledger technology, they would save a total of $8-12 Billion.
3. 64 percent of Bitcoins has never been used and might never be used
There will only be 21 million of the coins with the last Bitcoin expected to be reached 2140. About 16.7 million Bitcoins were spent as of December last year. However, fewer than that are in circulation.
A research paper released in December 2013 by the University of San Diego and George Mason University said that 64 percent of the 12 million Bitcoins had been mined but never spent. It is believed that about 1 million belong to the cryptocurrency creator (this is according to a Bitcoin developer Sergio Lerner) while some have been permanently lost.
That said, be careful when sending Bitcoins because refunds are not possible: Refunds are not possible on Bitcoin transactions. One Bitcoiner accidentally lost $137,000 Bitcoins he accidentally sent instead of sending just $5. There was no way to retrieve it.
4. Bitcoin transaction fees rose by 1289 percent between March 2015 to Feb 2017
Now is the worst time the Bitcoin network has realized high transaction fees. This also marks the most controversial issue that has led to forks.
The cost of one transaction reached over $20 per year. This makes it undesirable for microtransactions.
5. FBI made $48 million in 2013 after auctioning once seized 144,336 Bitcoins
The U.S. Justice Department last year obtained the proceeds of $48 million gotten after selling the 144,336 Bitcoins seized from Silk Road, which was alleged to be an online drug market. The Bitcoins were seized in 2013.
It took 4 years to claim the proceeds after selling the Bitcoins in 2014 and 2015 because Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht (aka Dread Pirate Roberts) had challenged the legality of the forfeiture.!
6. Only 802 persons have filed for tax on Bitcoin Income in the U.S.
Taxation of Bitcoin is not a new topic at all.
7. Chinese Bitcoin mining pools controlled about 81 percent of the Bitcoin network's collective hash rate as of 2017
A mining pool is a group of cooperating miners who contribute mining hash power to mine cryptocurrencies and share revenue. They smooth out rewards, make rewards more profitable and cut costs. However, the major blame is that they concentrate power on the mining pool’s owner.
One of the Bitcoin's network issues has been the concentration of mining activity in China, although this is changing with recent crackdowns by Chinese authorities from last year. Many companies are moving out of China. Before that, 20 major mining pools were located in China as of 2017.
8. Watch out for the Bitcoin Pizza Day
The most expensive pizzas in history (Papa John's pizzas) were bought on May 22, 2010, by Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer and they were bought for a fellow Bitcoin Talk forum. The amount of Bitcoin was worth just $25 then.
9. Bitcoin has over 13,800 forks as of January 2018
10. James Howell lost 7,500 Bitcoins by throwing away his hard drive
Wallet lost = Bitcoins lost forever.
11. Bitcoin network is eight times more powerful than the combined computing power of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world
Bitcoin is known as an exascale computer, meaning it can perform a quintillion floating point calculations per second. Some say exascale computing makes it possible to predict the effects of climate change to producing energy with fusion.
12. Don't wait for refunds: Refunds are not possible on Bitcoin transactions
One Bitcoiner accidentally lost $137,000 Bitcoins he accidentally sent instead of sending just $5. There was no way to retrieve it.
13. The Alphabay phisher and Phishkingz made $1million in 14 months by stealing Bitcoins.
Bitcoin crime is now rampant. The most common way of stealing Bitcoins is hacking, which was rampant in 2017.
14. University of Nicosia, Cyprus was first to accept tuition in BTC
15. More than 300,000 stores were expected to accept Bitcoin as a payment method in Japan
Bitcoin is a legal payment method in Japan since April 1, 2017. Japanese Yen accounts for the largest share of Bitcoin in Bitcoin trading markets.
16. One transaction of Bitcoin consumes 3,994 times more energy than a credit card transaction
17. CBT, Finland, and FPS, Belgium exempted Bitcoin transactions from value added taxation. CBT treats it as a commodity.
Bitcoin is also VAT free in Switzerland. Falcon, a Swiss private bank was the first bank in the world to sell Bitcoin to its clients. Chiasso, Switzerland, announced that it would start accepting taxes in Bitcoin this year.
In terms of legality, Bitcoin is illegal in Saudi Arabia, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan, Ecuador, Morocco, Nepal, Algeria, and Bangladesh.
Liberland, which is a micronation, accepts Bitcoin as a reserve currency.
18. There were 2,015 Bitcoin ATM's worldwide in 61 countries
The biggest producers of Bitcoin ATMs are Genesis Coin and Genesis Bytes.
North America has over 80 percent of all Bitcoin ATMs.
